Walk Cycles

Walk cycles return again! Well practice makes perfect I guess... But I think that's a long way off. This whole thing started with our walks being filmed, which for some was a task to see how silly s walk they could do. I stuck with a playful/thoughtful walk that I sometimes do. Walking up and down in front of everyone did feel a little embarrassing, but I was happy with the results (And I believed my walk is possible to animate).

Before I started animating I went through all the little details of my walk like;

• The way my arms swing and that they hang a little at the top of the arc,
• How one of my legs stays straight through half of the cycle,
• My legs accelerate as they are swung forwards,
• The direction my hips swing as the weight goes from one leg to the other.

It doesn't look like a very long list but I found it quite tricky taking all of them into account at the same time.

I decided to get Maya out of the way while there were computers free. I had a play around with the new rig and when I finally knuckled down I had a few problems with silly mistakes I had made and had to start again. But I'm pleased with the final result, especially the little hip wiggle that I have. What I found hard is that my recorded walk is from side on, so its hard to tell what the rest of the body is doing. Easy solution... Do the walk for real!

Time seems to fly when your animating, I guess its the concentration and problem solving.

With the 2-D animation I spent ages on working out how I was going to get all my points into it. I think I did OK with that. However, I'm not completely happy with the arms and how they don't really have much momentum. But I'm quite pleased with how the legs move, and I think Ive got the timing pretty right.

Until next time...

More walking!

Well, some more walk cycles it ll be...

Making the 3-D rig walk on the spot wasn't too difficult, and I'd would like to think I'm starting to get the hang of this Maya thing. They was less confusion about what to change to fix what, and more actual work.

The 2-D walk with character/emotion was much more difficult to do. I had to do lots of 'depressed walking'. I tried to think about what was happening with each limb, and the way my shoulders, hips and head moved. I'm not so sure about the way the hands more, I think they may be a bit too airy. The movement of the legs and feet are alright, but could appear more heavy and really drag along.